After turning down an offer from former TFC bench boss John Carver four years ago, he didn’t expect a similar proposition from current TFC coach Ryan Nelsen, a stranger until recently.

“It just kind of came out of the blue,” Caldwell reminisced with the Toronto Sun on Thursday.

“I was completing my season at Birmingham and I got a call from my agent asking if i’d like to go to Toronto. I was very excited but I felt like I needed a break. It had been a long season and I’d played 40 games.”

But the situation was urgent. The Reds, with one win from nine league fixtures, were in a disastrous — but familiar — state.

“(Nelsen said) he needed me at that point and at that time and it was important I came and acclimatized, help the team out and to see if Toronto was a good fit for me and if I was a good fit for the club.”

Nelsen’s pitch was so convincing it spurred TFC’s 33-year-old centre back to refund a planned family vacation in order to appear in Toronto’s next home date, a 1-0 loss to Columbus on May 18.

“(Nelsen) told me where the club wanted to go,” Caldwell said. “That appealed to me — the ambition. We as a football club are not going to rest until we achieve success. That’s been slow and very difficult and I appreciate the frustration from everyone who has been here for the seven to eight years. To me, that was very appealing. There were plans and progress to move forward.

“I told the wife we’d abandon the holiday and I was going to go to Toronto in the next week to play some football.”

Things improved, but only slightly. Toronto won just one of its next nine games, with a few draws in between.

It’s something Caldwell says he was prepared for — and relishes.

“I knew the team was struggling but I’ve always moved to teams like this in my career. I think people appreciate what I do. I’m brought in to try and organize and improve a team. That’s where I’ve been throughout my career. That doesn’t scare me. Thankfully, I’ve been fortunate enough where I’ve been at clubs that have been struggling and through the help of me and others we’ve become successful.”

While Toronto’s young back four hasn’t turned the corner yet, the improvement is marked. The club’s former habit of conceding last-second goals has dried up under Caldwell’s watch, a small win for an embattled TFC defence that was often at the tail-end of jokes before now.

Then, there’s Toronto’s improved goal-difference. After conceding 62 times in 2012, the 47 goals the Reds allowed in 2013 was a minor victory.

It was enough for TFC’s Red Patch Boys supporters’ group to name Caldwell its player of the year.

“I was very honoured,” Caldwell said of the award. “It’s a privilege to have been given that honour and it’s something I don’t take lightly.”

Just like the expectations laid out by MLSE head honcho Tim Leiweke this off-season.

Toronto FC’s top boss has already promised the world next season, all but guaranteeing the Reds will make the playoffs while landing one of the biggest names the league has ever seen — reportedly Jermain Defoe, Alberto Gilardino, or both.

“It is added pressure, but that’s what’s expected of us,” Caldwell said. “The players and everybody involved have to accept that and appreciate that we’re a fantastic club with resources like no other in MLS ... We have to put demands on ourselves. But it’s no more pressure than when the players hopefully come and we have to win games.

“It’s not just about those one or two guys. The quality they have is for everybody to see. We’ve witnessed it for over a decade in both cases. There’s no denying they are both top quality players. But we first and foremost have a base there.

“If we add the quality, two or three league players who have done very well at other MLS clubs, and the two or three extra additions from Europe, DP players and stuff, I feel we’ll be extremely strong from the get-go next season. That’s going to be important. We have a tough start.”

The Reds open next season in Seattle before a home date with D.C. United and a second daunting western trip to Real Salt Lake, which meets Kansas City in next weekend’s MLS Cup final.

“Can’t wait to get back and I’m hoping the supporters are right behind us and understand that we’re giving our utmost to win games and get this club to where it should be.

Which, according to his boss, is the MLS playoffs next season.

ITALIAN'S JOB REMAINS UP IN AIR

Two days after La Repubblica indicated Genoa has agreed to send 31-year-old Alberto Gilardino to BMO Field, Italian insider Gianluca Di Marzio reported the Azzuri striker will remain with his Serie A side until at least May, when he’ll join Toronto FC.

With aspirations to be in Italy’s 23-man World Cup squad, if Italian reports prove true, it’s possible Gilardino wouldn’t arrive until mid-summer, at the conclusion of Brazil 2014.

Numerous reports of Gilardino’s potential arrival come amid speculation that the Reds are inching closer to solidifying a move for English international Jermain Defoe.

Asked this week about Defoe, his current manager, Tottenham head coach Adre Villas-Boas, balked.

Head coach Greg Vanney told the
Toronto Sun prior to Wednesday night’s
match that he more or less knows the
lineup he’ll toss out for the season
opener in Vancouver. Here’s what TFC
could look like to start 2015.